A "manufacturing defect" that is likely to have sparked the
Rolls-Royce engine blow-out on a Qantas A380 was only identified in the past
48 hours, Australian investigators said on Friday.

The revelation, made by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) as it posted its report into the November 4 incident, comes three weeks after Rolls said the explosion was caused by an oil leak from a failure "confined to a specific component in the turbine area of the engine".

The discovery – days after Qantas resumed A380 flights – is what prompted recommendations from the ATSB and Rolls on Thursday that airlines using the Trent 900 engine, namely Qantas, Lufthansa and Singapore Airlines, conduct new checks.

Martin Dolan, the ATSB chief commissioner, said at a press conference on Friday: "In the course of investigation in the past 48 hours, we, working with Rolls-Royce and others, determine that there was a particular problem that had to that stage not been identified."

The defect, according to Mr Dolan, was "a misaligned region of counter-boring" within a pipe near the turbine which had the potential to lead to "fatigue cracking" and therefore an oil leak.

Asked whether the new finding meant Qantas should not have resumed A380 flights last Sunday, he said: "The problem has been identified at this stage as far as I'm aware only in the oil pipe of the engine that was on the aircraft. There's an inspection regime in place to determine whether or not that problem exists in any other engine."

A Rolls spokesman, responding to the claim that the fault has only been known for two days, said: "Rolls-Royce instituted a regime of inspections and maintenance immediately after the event on November 4 which has assured safe operation throughout. As we have learned more we have been able to refine these inspections."

The long-awaited ATSB report was published as Qantas prepares legal action against Rolls in order to pursue compensation for the disruption to its services. The company alleges Rolls was in breach of duty when it supplied engines because of a design defect.